Beckham arrives in Miami to promote £125m MLS franchise and tells opponents of his stadium: 'I am not your enemy'

David Beckham landed in Florida on Monday night to mount a charm offensive promoting his plans to spend more than £125million on creating a new soccer team and stadium in Miami.

The former England star pledged that he did not want to be ‘an enemy’ of those people and organisations who may be opposed to his scheme to build a state-of-the-art venue on sought-after land at the Port of Miami.

British royalty might have struggled to pull a larger phalanx of media to his rooftop address in the downtown area, which heaved with cameras as he talked of transforming the South West Corner of the waterfront into a space his advisers hope could turn out similar to Sydney Opera House.

I come in peace: Beckham addresses the media on a rooftop in Miami on Monday

New Theatre of Dreams? The first designs for Beckham's planned stadium for his MLS side have been revealed

Shining light: Beckham's team say the proposed design would create a new destination for Miami residents

Touchdown: Beckham arrives in Miami on Monday evening after doing his bit for Sport Relief

He has three other potential sites in less alluring spots, but his team’s push is for a futuristic 25,000-seater arena that will have the backdrop of the ever growing skyline and shimmering sea.

As his chief property adviser, John Alschuler, stated earlier, 'At the moment it’s a view that can only be seen by people with yachts, or cargo ships or by fish’.

While Beckham undoubtedly has the goodwill of many, and is genuinely regarded as an A-list personality here, not everyone is quite so gung-ho about his ambitious plans to build and open the stadium by 2018.

The main issue is potential traffic problems and access to the relevant parcel of land, with Royal Carribbean Cruise Lines, who operate next door, among those fearful about the knock-on effect as they load and unload ships on a daily basis.

Grounds for optimisn: The planned stadium - for the 23rd MLS franchise - is in a prime location on the Port of Miami

Entertainment venue: The arena will feature a restaurant and a nightclub on the west-facing open concourse

However, Beckham was quick to state that he came in a spirit of reconciliation. He is also seeking the same $3million per year tax rebates that are given to other sports franchises in Florida and his next stop is the state legislature based upstate in Tallahassee.

One of his obstacles is that it remains a running sore locally that the city’s struggling baseball team, the Florida Marlins, landed taxpayers with a $2billion overall debt when public money helped build their space-age stadium two years ago.

Therefore Beckham and his backers are keen to emphasise that they are paying for everything themselves and, combined with constructing the team from scratch, that is going to come to a minimum $200million, according to his advisers.

He also wants to disarm those concerned about the wider impact of his development, and did it with the charm that has always served him so well.

'We don’t want to be an enemy to the people who are opposing the stadium,' he said. 'I want to work with them, to change their mindset about the fact that we are here to help the community and help Miami.

Exciting times ahead: Beckham is keen to start from scratch and create a team to play in the MLS

All smiles: David Beckham poses with fans wearing the proposed colours of the new club in Miami

'We want to create something that is not just going to be seen around the MLS. Every time that stadium is on TV, it’s going to be worldwide, it’s not just going to be America, it’s not just going to be this part of the world. That’s one of the reasons why we want the stadium where it is, because if you see the plans, the skyline is what you will see, and that will only be good for Miami.

'We do have options, and there are other sites that we have looked at. But for me, Miami is all about the water, all about the culture, and I don’t think people see that enough. This stadium is all about the skyline and that’s what we want people to see all around the world.'

Vision: Beckham says he can handle everything that's thrown at him

As yet the project goes under the name of Beckham Miami United, but he is within six weeks he will announce more plans about what the title will be, pledging that nascent fans will be allowed their say. The team is likely to come into existence in 2016 and may have to spend at least year playing in South Miami at the stadium of Florida International University.

On the issue of it all causing congestion, the idea is that kick offs in the evening will not collide with cruise ship loading times, or fixtures for the nearby Miami Heat basketball team.

'I’ve never played in a stadium where I’ve driven out and there’s been no traffic. The traffic side is a good side because it means that we’ve got a full stadium,' he said. 'There are things we can legislate for and it’s an area we will try to deal with.

'I’d like everything to move along a little quicker but a project as big as this is always going to take time. So far everything is positive. There will be criticism but we’re ready to handle everything that will be thrown at us.'

Miami is historically a tricky sports market, with the lifestyle emphasis on doing rather than watching. Other ‘sunshine’ cities such as San Diego and Los Angeles have sometimes struggled to support sports franchises with the latter, for example, not even having its own team in the all-powerful NFL.

South Florida also has a population with a high proportion of ‘outsiders’ who do not have tribal loyalty to the locality, although this should work in Beckham’s favour as many residents are from soccer-mad South America or Europe. There are 300,000 Colombians alone in Miami.

And judging by the crowd he attracted after just stepping off the plane from London, Beckham’s pulling power will be a decisive factor.